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‘new moon’ is 3rd-highest grossing film ever

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New Moon made over $23 million at its 12:01 a.m. showing Friday morning, which doesn’t make it much of a surprise that the film became the third highest-grossing film ever over the weekend.

The second Twilight film made $140.7 million, putting it only behind comic book behemoths The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3 for the highest-grossing films in the history of the United States.

Most impressively, though, is that New Moon made $118.1 million overseas and made all of this money in the face of poor reviews.

But, at the end of the day, New Moon is the perfect pop culture phenomenon.  It appeals to angst-ridden teens who are seeking love, beautiful partners and an interesting life.  The Twilight series as a whole fills this void in the film’s target audience, which means it’s no surprise that New Moon was so successful this weekend.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, check out RipcordNews.com.

christian bale apologizes

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The Dark Knight star Christian Bale has apologized for his profanity-laced tirade that leaked last week.

If you missed out on the back story and the audio, then click here.

“It’s been a miserable week for me,” Bale told hosts Kevin Ryder and Gene “Bean” Baxter. “Listen, I know I have a potty mouth; everybody knows this now.

“The thing that I really want to stress is I have no confusion whatsoever. I was out of order beyond belief. I was way out of order. I acted like a punk. I regret that.

Bale went on to say, “there is nobody that has heard that tape that is hit harder by it than me. I make no excuses for it. It is inexcusable. I hope that that is absolutely clear.”

barrymore has crush on christian bale

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While promoting her new film, He’s Just Not That Into You, Drew Barrymore admitted that she has had a 20-year crush on The Dark Knight star Christian Bale.

Which, on any other day, would be fine.  You know?  But yesterday, some audio leaked of a 4-minute Bale tirade directed at the Director of Photography on the set of Terminator Salvation. (If you haven’t heard it, head on over to here, but plug in your headphones, because the language is filthy.)

So I found the news of Barrymore’s love of Christian Bale kind of funny.

“He’s so cute. And I knew him when he was a kid. He was in Empire of the Sun. If he walked into the room now, I would totally clam up. Or I might go overboard and embarrass myself.”

The thing about Christian Bale is that this instance was probably a once-a-year type of thing.  Just one of those days, I suspect.  But now he’s getting roasted in the media, and because of things like YouTube and embedding video in blogs, his tirade will never disappear.

Which is too bad, because Bale is a really good actor.  But good for writers because it’s out-of-the-ordinary material that everybody seemingly wants to hear.

who’s america’s favorite actor?

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America has spoken.

And, for the third year in a row, the glorious Northern American country has voted Oscar-winner Denzel Washington as their favorite actor.  Washington didn’t just beat out Ashton Kutcher and Pauly Shore, either.

Nope. He beat Hollywood heavyweights Clint Eastwood (2nd), John Wayne and Will Smith (Wayne and Smith tied for 3rd) in the Harris Poll.

Harrison Ford finished fifth, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp came in sixth, seventh and eighth.

And then, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman rounded out the top-10, respectively.

I must say, I’m not sure about this list.  One omission stands out, especially.

Heath Ledger.  Especially after his death and role as The Joker in The Dark Knight, I would have to think that he would at least knocked Morgan Freeman down a notch, but apparently not.

Recount?

the dark knight is back in imax

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After becoming the second-highest grossing film of all-time during the summer, The Dark Knight is back in theaters to make more money (and promote the film, and it’s rock-star Supporting Actor before the Oscars on Feb. 22).

Specifically, TDK is back in 143 IMAX theaters.

But the question is: Will anyone go see it?

The film already made almost a billion dollars in theaters, and was the year’s most popular DVD.  It was also the most-stolen DVD on the Internet. So, I theorize, that people would rather sit on their couch and watch Christian Bale pilot the Batbike.  Especially with money being so tight in the States.

I personally won’t see it, but will you?  Is IMAX worth it?

who was snubbed for an oscar

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So, if you haven’t heard, the Oscar nominees were announced today.

(If you’re looking for a run-down of the nominees, head here)

A lot is being made about the Oscar snubs, and I’ve got to say: what’s the big deal?

So what if Gran Torino wasn’t nominated for Best Picture, and Clint Eastwood wasn’t nominated for Best Actor?

It really doesn’t matter, because I don’t think Gran Torino had any chance in either category.  You know what I mean?

The whole Oscar-snubs type of arguments is directly related to to sports and All-Star games, though the Oscars do actually mean something.  But if you saw the Golden Globes, or even just the winners, you’ve seen the favorites for each of the major awards.  And I don’t think that there’s going to be that much of a difference between the GG and the AA.

Slumdog Millionaire is (seemingly) the favorite for every category it’s in, Mickey Rourke is the favorite for Best Actor and Heath Ledger is a shoe-in for Best Supporting Actor.

I guess, with all of this being said, the only thing that is disappointing is that The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated for Best Picture.  I personally think it deserved it, even though I haven’t yet seen The Reader, which was (allegedly) the final film to make it in to the Best Picture nominees.

The Oscars air on Feb. 22.

the year’s best films

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If you haven’t noticed, film critics love lists.  At the end of every year, it seems that there’s an obligation among them to write as many as possible.

On the Best Movies of 2008 lists, you’re going to basically see the same movies.

The Dark Knight, Milk, Doubt, The Reader, Iron Man, Slumdog Millionaire, Revolutionary Road, Frost/Nixon Pineapple Express.

Well, maybe not that last one.  But you get the point. 

Anyways, my two favorite movie critics love to do these lists.  Peter Travers from Rolling Stone released his top movies of 2008 today.  Roger Ebert will likely roll his Top of 2008 out next week, but he did write about the top Foreign films today. 

With that being said, most of us are never going to see all of these movies.  I know I’m surely not.

But here are five that I want to see over the Holiday Break, in no particular order:

- The Wrestler – Mickey Rourke is being discussed for an Oscar, and everything I’ve heard about the movie so far is that he seriously deserves it.  I’m planning on seeing this solely because of what other people are saying about it. 

- Rachel Getting Married – Anne Hathaway is supposed to be hauntingly good.  From everything that I’ve read about this film, her performance – and the movie as a whole – sticks with you for days.  I love movies that do that.

- Revolutionary Road – The book this film was adapted from is supposed to be excellent, and I want to read it before seeing the movie.  And Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are may favorite actor and actress, respectively.  So I will be there.  But, if you’re considering going because you want a Titanic 2, know that they’re marraige falls apart during the film.  At least that’s what I hear.

- Doubt - Seems like a really interesting story about accusations of pedophilia and everything that goes with them.  I might wait with this, though.

- Slumdog Millionaire – I’ve heard mixed opinions.  On one side, this movie is supposed to be a legit Oscar contender.  On the other, critics are saying it’s mediocre – being heavily compared to Crash.  I simply want to see what all the fuss is about.

So please enjoy the best time of the year for family and movies and have a safe and healthy Holiday break students.

dark knight sets dvd sales record

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Who saw this coming?

The Dark Knight - which is now the the second highest grossing film of all time - broke the record for most DVD sales ever when it sold 3 million copies in its first three days in the United States, Canada and England.

The amazing thing about this figure is that, according to Warner Bros. Vice President Rob Sanders, the high-definition DVD sales are higher than Warner Bros. expected.

“It’s encouraging,” Sanders said in a press release. “The Blu-ray (high definition) sales of Dark Knight were exceptionally strong and much higher than our projections.”

I guess that The Dark Knight - starring Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the menacing Joker – is the perfect movie to buy in high definition.  Especially when you consider that it was mostly shot in Chicago and Hong Kong, two absolutely stunning cities.

Actually, the heads of the studio announced that they plan to re-release The Dark Knight in theaters on Jan. 23 today as well.  They will do this for two reasons. 

The first is to build Oscar buzz for those up for the awards – most notably Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor.  The second is to eclipse a billion dollars grossed internationally.  TDK is currently stuck at $996 million.

four christmases makes nearly $50 million

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Four Christmases took in an impressive $46.7 million this weekend, in an amount that can be equated to the Thanksgiving holiday (coupled with black Friday) and the fact that schools were out because of that holiday.

With its’ performance over the weekend, Christmases became the third highest grossing film to open over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Toy Story 2 debuted to $80.1 million, and last year’s Enchanted opened to $49.1 million.

The team of Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn easily defeated competition from Twilight, Bolt, Quantum of Solace and Australia.  Those four films, respectively, took in $39.5 million, $36 million, $28.1 million and $20 million over the five-day gross period.

The most interesting performance from this weekend wasn’t in the top-five. 

Milk, Gus Van Sant’s film starring Sean Penn, pulled in $1.9 million in just 36 theaters.  Milk, at the moment, is one of the favorites for the Best Picture Oscar.

On a personal note, I saw Role Models last night, and it was one of the most enjoyable movie-going experiences I’ve had in a while.  I highly recommend it, unless you have young kids (like one couple had last night), then you might want to protect them from the movie’s foul language and actions.

Did you see any of these films over the weekend?  What did you think about them?

the dark knight approaching $1 billion

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The Dark Knight is still going strong overseas, bringing its international gross ever closer to $1 billion dollars.

At this moment, the film, written by Christopher and Jonathon Nolan, has brought in $997,535,317.  $528,535,317 of that amount has been in the United States, making the second installment in Nolan’s Batman franchise the second highest grossing film of all time (Titanic being the highest).

Part of the film’s success is due to the Joker being Heath Ledger’s last completed full-length role, and there’s also the fact that The Dark Knight was hailed before its release by critics, those involved in the film and other influential people in Hollywood (most notably Kevin Smith, who called the film “The Godfather 2 of super hero movies”).

But you know all of this. 

The thing that is new with The Dark Knight is that its script has been released for Oscar consideration.  We’ll be seeing more and more Oscar buzz for the film as the time progresses, and I’m of the opinion that if The Dark Knight pulls in a high amount of Oscars (like Titanic did in 1998), then that will be the thing that firmly entrenches it as one of history’s best films.